1. Field of the Invention
This invention is to a method for propagating changes made to a database in a computer system to other databases in computer systems connected in a network. In particular, a method for synchronizing changes to relational databases is described.
2. Background Information
In many computer systems, the processing and storage components are distributed geographically and interconnected by means of one or more communication networks. Data is often distributed among the components and stored in relational databases. One such computer program for creating and managing relational databases is the DATABASE 2 (a trademark of IBM Corp.) program product, available commercially from IBM Corp. In large enterprises, it is often desirable for the databases in each computer, or node, in the network to contain identical information, such as address or phone data for employees.
The problem in such a distributed environment, however, is one of ensuring that any changes made to one database are propagated to the other databases in the system so that data remains consistent. This problem has been addressed in the prior art by automatically "pushing" any changes throughout the rest of the network. While this solution may be satisfactory under some conditions, it does not work well in complex networks. It is therefore desirable to provide a method for synchronizing changes to relational databases in a network.